> Introduction
Buildings Department
The Buildings Department was created in 1971, having inherited the activity until then developed by the Construction Procedures Section, which, as from LNEC establishment, formed, together with the Standardisation and Documentation Section, and as per the first Statutes of the former Civil Engineering Laboratory, the Service I of that institution.
The Buildings Department is mainly responsible for carrying out work in the following areas:
- Housing buildings and other social equipment buildings, namely schools, hospitals, as well as administrative and commercial buildings;
- Industrial and agricultural buildings;
- Built areas.
It also has competences in the fields as follows:
- Building construction technology;
- Characterisation of fire performance of building products;
- Acoustic component of environment and acoustic metrology;
- Building construction economy and management;
- Social ecology;
- Safety on construction sites;
- Urban-planning and construction regulations.
Main Fields of activity
The Buildings Department is responsible for the following fields of activity:
- Building construction technology;
- Building construction physics (Acoustics, Lighting, Thermal comfort, etc.);
- Environmental comfort;
- Building construction quality;
- Building elements and building equipment;
- Fire protection and safety in use;
- Conservation of the built patrimony;
- Building pathology and rehabilitation;
- Housing;
- Urban planning and management;
- Building construction economy and management;
- Social ecology.
The Department has also carried out relevant research and development activities, as well as other scientific and technical activities, in areas that are not implicitly included in the list above, namely:
- Low energy consumption in buildings;
- Urban rehabilitation;
- Environmental acoustics (or acoustic component of the environment);
- Safety on construction sites;
- Urban planning and construction regulations.
Simultaneously, various types of activities of a horizontal character are developed at the different Divisions of the Buildings Department. These are namely: LNEC quality mark, regulations, standardisation, certification and European technical approval, as well as the quality certification of building products and systems.
 Jorge Manuel Grandão Lopes (Head of the Buildings Department) |
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Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, I.P. |
The Organization Chart of the Buildings Department is divided into six Divisions:
Brief history of the Department